Yes, this summer. Absolutely cannot live through another season of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal.
Although I’m sure I said that last year and the year before and you get the picture now.
People talk about getting someone that will continue the ‘Arsenal way’ of playing football; usually the most attractive thing when it all comes together.
But it hasn’t (come together) as often as everyone would love in recent years thus, something needs to change … the person calling the shots from the bench.
So from least favourite to the one most fancied, the candidates most suitable to replace Wenger are:
Manuel Pellegrini
Yes, he has been well out of the spotlight since he was replaced at Manchester City by Pep Guardiola in 2016, but Pellegrini has a pedigree to peddle.
His style of play is heavily attack-based, which would serve Arsenal and its fans well.
Before winning the Premier League and reaching the 2016 UEFA Champions League semis with Man. City, he led a modest Villarreal to third place in the Spanish league and the UEFA Cup last eight in 2005.
Pellegrini greatly improved on that by leading the club to the Champions League semis in 2006, losing to Arsenal.
This was followed by fifth and second place finishes in the league; the latter being the highest ever achieved by the club. Villarreal also made it to the Champions League last eight in 2009, only to lose to Wenger and Arsenal again.
He moved to Real Madrid afterwards and finished the 2009/10 season with a staggering 96 points and 102 goals scored, yet, still lost the league title to Barcelona that finished with 99 points.
Sacked as a result, he joined Malaga, whom he eventually led to the 2013 Champions League quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, his sack by Real Madrid in 2010 led him to famously state, ‘It’s no good having an orchestra with the 10 best guitarists if I don’t have a pianist. Real Madrid have the best guitarists, but if I ask them to play the piano they won’t be able to do it so well.
‘He [Pérez] sold players that I considered important. We didn’t win the Champions League because we didn’t have a squad properly structured to be able to win it.’
Pellegrini certainly won’t have such problems at Arsenal. And frankly, he needs to leave China where he’s managing Hebei China Fortune since yesterday.
Joachim Low
Germany’s national team boss has made Die Mannschaft into one of the most feared teams in the world; they can be ruthless on the offensive (ask Brazil) and make Jose Mourinho have an orgasm with their defensive display.
In three World Cups, he’s never failed to reach the semis – twice as coach and once as assistant to Jurgen Klinsmann – and same goes for the Euros.
While he has a contract until after the 2018 World Cup, the heart wants what the heart wants and Low would definitely make a great replacement of Wenger – never mind his habit of feeling his crotch and sniffing his fingers after during some matches. No one’s perfect.
Laurent Blanc
Blanc‘s style of play is also based more on attack, though his approach is a bit more conservative than others on this list.
He had a spell playing for Manchester United before winning the league with Bordeaux in 2009.
He then led France to the last eight of Euro 2012 before becoming PSG manager after.
There, he absolutely dominated the French football scene, winning the league and domestic cups in each season and leading PSG to the Champions League quarterfinals for three consecutive seasons.
He got to beat Chelsea a couple of times in the Champions League, though managed to lose over two legs to Manchester City in 2016 when the odds were in his favour.
That cost him his job at PSG and he’s remained in some corner, waiting for a job to get back in the game and what better job to take than the plum one at Arsenal – if Daddy Wengz would oblige.
Massimiliano Allegri
Arguably the most interesting option of the lot and here’s why.
In 2012 while managing AC Milan, Allegri stated he would love to retire when he’s 55 years old because of the stress associated with football management.
If he’s still holding that notion, it means he has five more seasons to manage in football; Arsenal can make themselves his last club and would most likely have enough good memories.
Based on logistics statistics, he’d make a great manager at Arsenal too.
He received praise while managing lowly Cagliari between 2008 and 2010, winning the 2009 Panchina d’Oro, a prize awarded to the best Serie A football manager according to other managers’ votes.
He won the award ahead of Mourinho who was managing Inter Milan at the time.
From Cagliari, Allegri moved to Milan and won the Italian league in 2011.
He was sacked in January 2014 and joined Juventus six months later, winning the league twice and on the cusp of claiming a third successive league title there.
He’s also led Juventus to the Champions League final in 2015 and will face the team that beat him then, Barcelona, in the quarterfinals of this season’s competition.
Wenger’s contract at Arsenal runs out this summer, and he’s said nothing about renewing … yet.
Best he can do for himself and all of the club is to win the FA Cup at least, seeing as finishing in the top four may be a bit of a stretch this season.
That way, he can leave on some sort of high.